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It took for ever to get a cab, and Naomi had to walk for ages until the theatre crowd thinned out. It was cold with an icy wind, which didn’t help matters much, and she wasn’t assertive enough with her flagging, but finally she was sitting in the back of a warm cab and would soon be home.
The Christmas lights were amazing and the drive was a night-time version of the walk she had taken with Abe.
But this time as they passed the Rockefeller Center she was alone.
And the sight of the lights in the stores along Fifth Avenue reminded her of teardrops and suddenly Naomi let her own fall.
Oh, she loathed feeling sorry for herself, but tonight she did.
It was her own fault, Naomi knew.
She could have been with Abe tonight.
Naomi knew it in her heart.
The right thing to do really was the hardest thing.
But then the nicest thing happened. Whoever had warned her about New York cabbies clearly hadn’t met this one, because he was so kind that he handed her a wad of kitchen roll to wipe her eyes.
‘Christmas makes it that much harder...’ he said.
‘It does,’ Naomi agreed, and his insight just made her cry some more.
Then he told her about his wife, and how much he missed her, so much so that he chose to work through the nights. He was the nicest cab driver in the world.
‘You work for the Devereuxes?’ he commented, as they pulled up at the huge grey house.
‘I do.’ Naomi nodded.
No, it wasn’t really home.
Tomorrow she’d put her game face on again.
Just not tonight.
She turned the key and stepped into the entrance and had to think for a moment to remember the code, but then she stood rigid as Abe came up beside her and she watched as his long fingers punched it in.
‘You’ve been crying.’
It sounded more like an accusation. ‘No, I’m just cold.’
‘It must be the night for it,’ Abe said. ‘Barb just said the same thing, but in your case I don’t believe it has anything to do with the wind chill factor.’
Naomi didn’t even bother to take off her coat, she would do that upstairs. She just brushed past him and had made it halfway to the stairs when he spoke.
‘I’m sorry,’ Abe said. And even though it was his first apology in all his years on this earth, it didn’t go down well.
‘Sorry for what?’ Naomi said, and then spun around.
‘Upsetting you,’ Abe said. ‘For not telling you about Candice.’
‘You!’ Naomi shouted. ‘It’s not all about you, Abe.’ She was furious, not just with him but with herself, because of course he was there at the bottom of the well she was crying from, not that she’d let him know that. ‘You’re so arrogant. Doesn’t it even enter your head that I might have other things to be crying about?’
Abe just stood there, which was a feat in itself. Usually he turned his back on hysterics or drama, especially when they were of the female kind.
‘Christmas ishardfor some people. Not that you even celebrate it. And, no, Barb wasn’t crying because of the wind...’ She stopped herself, because it wasn’t right to break Barb’s confidence in the heat of the moment.
So she collected herself.
